Savoy Comics: Reverbstorm 7

Lord Horror #14

Reverbstorm 7—Juden Wars

Script—David Britton

Art—John Coulthart

Cover: Coulthart (after Burne Hogarth)

2000

A Savoy Soleil Noir Production

60pp

ISBN 0 86130 102 1

"I will break the door of Hell, and smash the bolts; I will bring up the dead to eat food with the living, and the living shall be outnumbered by the hosts of them."

Gilgamesh

The penultimate issue and the grandest Lord Horror comic to date. Thirty-eight pages of artwork, many full-page pieces and three double spreads showing the Terror and Magnificence of the Unreal City. Humpty-Dumpty has a gas problem, Jessie Matthews undergoes a change of character and Lord Horror and Blue Blaze Laudanum come face to face at last. Unexpected resolutions and some of Coulthart's best artwork.

• See the Orders page for purchase details.

The Reverbstorm Appendix—A detailed guide to references within the series

"Reverbstorm 7 reads like a nightmare diary of sadism and violence. As you would expect from reading someone else's dream journal, whilst proving fascinating, Reverbstorm 7 doesn't make much sense at first. There is no obvious plot as such, certainly not in the linear and conventional sense. There are, however recurring symbols and themes as well as artistic, musical and literary references. James Joyce, Humpty Dumpty and Jessie Matthews all have roles in this strange tale. Throughout we have the anti-war symbol of Picasso's Minotaur alongside pseudo-historical images of Lord Horror and the death camps. It all takes place in a post-apocalyptic cityscape littered with corpses and limbs. Imagine the set of Blade Runner being designed by HR Giger. Smoking chimneys and networks of pipes pierce the skyline and on the ground, blood runs in rivers. The artwork is astounding in its painstaking detail and the text is disjointed and reads like wonderful somnambulistic utterances.

The reader is constantly reminded of how horrific genocide is by Lord Horror's violence. His actions, always carried out in rock'n'roll gusto, and his fascist leanings, defy glamour by their sheer brutality. The themes are always very adult and the content is dense and often harrowing. There are definitely no super heroes or happy endings. Reverbstorm is stylish, intelligent and daring, a serious comic for serious readers."

Matt Leyshon, Blood From 'Stones

"Mr Britton asks us to stare into the sun with him. Some of us do and, after winding our way through the tortuous labyrinth of western philosophy, rhetoric, political, artistic and scientific theory expounded in the text, we finally confront the minotaur at the centre, crouched atop a pile of human skulls and recognise ourselves with a sudden jarring shock."

D M MITCHELL, Rapid Eye 2 (1995 edition)

"Savoy flay and mock the cherished values of the Disestablishment...If it be admitted that this is a genuinely vicious body of work, it is at least one which attempts real violations or real contemporary norms, and not just the usual tepid pantomimes of rebellion... Coulthart's dark, clogged artwork is superb...The sheer darkness of Savoy's anti-heroes is true to humanity and to history in a way which other recent work fails to be."

ANDY ROBERTSON, Interzone

"A rollercoaster ride to the end of our collective night, a delirious, erotic and unbridled display of literary savagery and artistic terrorism."

D M MITCHELL, Rapid Eye 2 (1995 edition)

I have not seen in many a long series of months—or years—the kind of continued dedication to the punctilious and meticulous pen and ink work put on board by your artist. It's a striking example of the need to create and the desire to shock the sensibilities of an audience with a phantasmic subject linked to a febrile and phantasmagorical talent.

BURNE HOGARTH

"There is no clear-cut political code or ethical interpretation, because Savoy is leading us, as usual, into frighteningly unfamiliar territory...yet (in Reverbstorm) there is a strong misleading and dangerous element now present in the seductive form of rock'n'roll."

D M MITCHELL, Rapid Eye 2 (1995 edition)